|
|
 |
|
| Best Practices |
Action Figures
Suzanne McGee
08/02/2004
|
Monks, who has written books about his efforts and been quoted on
governance issues often in the press, could be a model for those of us eager to
use our clout to encourage companies to pay attention to concerns ranging from
the environment and social justice to proper accounting policies. However, his
is also a cautionary tale: becoming an investor-activist, whether in pursuit of
our ideals or simply better returns, can be frustrating, and the personal cost
can be enormous.
“I tell people who want to understand me to just imagine
that I’m Don Quixote, and there are an awful lot of windmills on the landscape,”
he says. There are moments when this endless tilting seems to work, but these
can be rare. Monks still relishes the memory of one creative–if costly–coup.
While campaigning to make retail giant Sears, Roebuck & Co. more responsive
to shareholders, he paid $100,000 to buy a full-page ad in the Wall Street
Journal showing the silhouetted profiles of Sears directors, who were labeled
“nonperforming assets.” “One of the directors at the time was Don Rumsfeld; he
didn’t like it at all,” Monks recalls, chuckling. He failed in his bid to join
the board, but his campaign succeeded in forcing Sears to restructure its board,
reduce its size and appoint four new independent directors.
Savor these
successes, Monks urges, because the campaigns we wage often earn us the enmity
of many of our peers. “You had better have all the money you want, and have
joined every club you want to join,” Monks notes, “because you are going to be
anathema to the establishment once you set out along this path.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
